Join Paul Tukey, the Glenstone Museum’s Chief Sustainability Officer, and Beth McGee, Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Director of Science and Agricultural Policy, for a free live webinar at noon on October 7 about how your lawn care choices affect the environment. Online registration in advance is required to join. 

Tukey and McGee will discuss how to create natural landscapes using native plants that add habitat for local wildlife and reduce polluted rain runoff. By incorporating these techniques into your lawn care you can help restore the local environment and improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

“We want to show people the beauty and the benefits of having a more natural landscape,” said McGee. “We’ll be encouraging homeowners to embrace native plants, add trees, and replace swaths of turf with low maintenance groundcovers. The traditional suburban lawn, which often requires fertilizers and herbicides to maintain, is going out of style. We can help you transition into the future.”

At the webinar, Tukey and McGee will detail ways homeowners can plant native grasses, clovers and other types of ground cover to create a lush lawn composed of diverse plant species. Doing so will increase soil health, which brings back a complex ecosystem of microorganisms and enables the soil to store more water. 

Lawns compose more than 3 million acres of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, meaning what happens to them affects the Bay’s health.

When it rains on lawns, the water can wash away fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals that then flow into local waterways and ultimately the Bay. Removing traditional turf lawns and replanting with native plants can greatly reduce this polluted runoff.

Tukey leads sustainability efforts at Glenstone, a nearly 300-acre contemporary art museum in Montgomery County, Maryland. He is also the author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual, a book that details how to grow a gorgeous lawn free of harsh chemicals.

McGee has worked for CBF for 17 years and currently leads the organization’s efforts to help farmers implement regenerative agriculture techniques that restore healthy soils and reduce water runoff.

Fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that wash away from turf lawns after rainstorms contribute to the overall pollution loads that Bay watershed states are working to clean up by 2025 under the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint goals.

Once in the Bay, these pollutants can cause harmful algal blooms that cloud the water and deplete dissolved oxygen, which kills marine life, among other negative effects. 

Reducing lawn pollutants is a key component of watershed-wide efforts to reach the 2025 goals.

Watch the webinar October 7 from Noon to 1:00 p.m. to see how you can make a difference. [Registration required.]

For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA webpage.  Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column).  Click Here to support their work.

Also visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership to learn how you can help clean water grow on trees.

CBF has over 275,000 members in Bay Watershed.

PA Chesapeake Bay Plan

For more information on how Pennsylvania plans to meet its Chesapeake Bay cleanup obligations, visit DEP’s PA’s Phase 3 Watershed Implementation Plan webpage.   

Click Here for a summary of the steps the Plan recommends.

How Clean Is Your Stream?

DEP’s Interactive Report Viewer allows you to zoom in on your own stream or watershed to find out how clean your stream is or if it has impaired water quality using the latest information in the draft 2020 Water Quality Report.

Related Article - Fertilizing Turf:

-- Senate Passes Bill To Control Overuse Of Fertilizer On Turf, Certify Applicators; Now Goes To House Where It Died Last Session

Related Articles This Week:

-- DCNR Invests $2.85 Million In 22 Rivers Conservation, Boating, Fishing Access, Streamside Buffers Projects

-- Lancaster Clean Water Partners Announce $128,000 In Grants To Support Implementation of Countywide Clean Water Plan

-- U.S. House Passes Bill To Reauthorize Chesapeake Bay, Wildlife Programs, Bill Now On President’s Desk

-- EPA, Agriculture Formalize Joint Support For Healthy Farms, Clean Water, Future Food Security At Lancaster County Farm

-- CBF Offering 6 Live Online Classes To Empower Volunteer VoiCeS In PA To Advocate For Clean Water

-- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Launches Live Online Environmental Education Program-- OWL

-- Pike Conservation District Holds Virtual Road Maintenance Workshop Oct. 28

-- Audubon Society Of Western PA Hosts Online Buffalo Creek Watershed Riparian Buffer Workshops With Free Trees In Armstrong, Butler Counties

-- Harvesting Vegetation From Multi-Function Riparian Buffers Barely Reduces Water Quality Benefits

-- Bucknell University 15th Annual River Symposium Call For Presentation Proposals

-- 2021 Delaware Estuary Science & Environmental Summit Call For Presentation Proposals

-- U.S.G.S. Pennsylvania Water Science Center Upgrades StreamStats Information

-- Brodhead Watershed Assn. Welcomes Kelly Gallo As New Executive Director

[Posted: October 1, 2020]

10/5/2020